


Focus

by hhertzof



Category: Veritas: The Quest
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-19
Updated: 2007-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 05:52:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1634969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nikko doesn't have enough of the pieces to make any sense of them yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Focus

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Saeva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saeva/gifts).



> Thank you to paranoidangel for the beta.
> 
> Written for Saeva

 

 

**One**

_Will_

Once you realize this isn't real the world becomes as you will it. Or at least that's what Vincent had said. Nikko wasn't sure if he had believed him or if he had just been unable to _focus_.

He remembered the way the can flew to his hand as if he was holding a magnet and tried to emulate the way he had felt at that moment. He had found his focus in the castle. Cause and effect becoming subjective under the influence of the Heimholtz resonance.

Had it led him here? Or had he been walking in this direction all along?

**Two**

_Memory_

How much did he remember of his mother, really? Fleeting glimpses of a woman. A scent, a smell, a touch. But she was inexorably linked to the quest. And to the ring of truth. How much had she found before she died? What secrets were still to be found in her diaries? How much had she known about what was to come?

He and his father were walking in her footsteps now. Blindly. Each step bringing them further into the maze of half truths and legends that had been her life and were now theirs. He wondered if the carousel had any significance, or if it had just been supplied by his mind to give context to the Ring of Truth.

**Three**

_Dream_

Everything had seemed clearer in the castle. Sharper. Brighter. Things fit together â" bits of long forgotten memory, half heard conversations, the objects and information they had found in their quest. It had been the same in Russia when he was dying, when the extraneous thoughts were swept away and all that was left was what was truly important.

Spiritual journeys and altered realities as roads to enlightenment. Not that Nikko would want to be drugged or sick all the time, but he now understood the lure of such things and why people ritualized them.

**Four**

_Wonders_

They had seen wonders. The grail, the skulls, the pyramid in the Antarctic. There was so much that other people never saw. If someone had asked him, when he was still making a hobby of being kicked out of boarding school, if such things could be true, Nikko would have laughed.

He wasn't laughing now. He'd seen too much, both good and bad. It was a strange, dangerous world, and he had no intention of leaving it behind.

**Five**

_Teamwork_

Not that his father would make him go. Not now. They had had their rough patch at the beginning when Nikko resented the hell out of his father for dumping him in boarding school all those years, and Solomon Zond had been more interested in his quest and his dead wife, than his son.

But Nikko had proved his case the best way he could, by being an asset to the team. He'd contributed just as much as the others, and his father had acknowledged that in Paris, when he'd sent Nikko in to disable the security system to the museum. Searching through his mother's past for the keys to the future had rebuilt the bond, stronger than before. Nikko no longer worried that he'd be sent back to boarding school.

**Six**

_Depths_

Vincent just kept surprising him. Every time Nikko turned around there was something new to be discovered about Vincent's past. He still wasn't sure he trusted the other man after his, admittedly faked, betrayal, but for now they had the same goals and that was good enough for him.

He'd learned so much from the other man, about self defense and self respect and he owed him greatly. He hoped the other man wasn't planning a double cross once they had found the rest of the pieces of the ring. He had been a member of Dorna once, and Nikko believed that wasn't an organization you left easily.

**Seven**

_Truth_

The path had been strewn with death, lies and betrayal, but they were getting closer to finding the truth...the Ring of Truth, that was. They only had a few years until the supposed end of days in 2012. There had been too many connections made for Nikko _not_ to believe, but he had to hope it wouldn't be like the movie of the same name.

And this was an important truth, not like he'd been taught in his many boarding schools. None of the things he'd been taught there seemed important any more.

**Eight**

_Puzzle_

If they found all of the pieces. They had two and a half...less than a half. Vincent had called it  
three, but Nikko didn't think that partial piece could be considered as a full piece. Too much of the writing was missing and they would never be able to connect it to the others.

But he had always liked puzzles and this one was a nasty one. He wondered idly where they would be sent next. Cairo? Jerusalem? Albuquerque? They didn't have enough of the pieces to see a pattern yet, if there even was one to be found.

**Nine**

_Power_

It was all about power. Dorna wanted the power the Ring of Truth could bring them. Nikko wanted the same thing as his father...to find the Ring first and usher the world into a bright new age. The struggle between the two groups was going to grow worse as 2012 came closer.

He had power. He knew that now, but it was locked in his brain, and he hadn't figured out how to access it.

**Ten**

_Destiny_

Nikko wasn't sure he believed in destiny, but there was something going on. The guardian of the skull had sought him out...not his father. He kept making connections that no one else saw, half the time not even being aware of it. Legends and prophecies seemed to follow him wherever he went. His subconscious seemed to have powers and knowledge he couldn't reach consciously. He remembered the can....

"Focus, Nikko. You need to focus." Vincent's voice broke into his jumble of thoughts, bringing him back to the gym and to the meditation exercise that he was supposed to be doing.

"Can I help it if my mind drifts?" He half turned to look at the other man. He'd thought he'd found the secret in the castle and that he'd be able to focus properly now. Instead, all it had done was raise even more questions to jumble up his mind.

"Yes, you can, Nikko. Let's start again."

Nikko tried to push the thoughts and memories out of his mind. He hadn't told anyone about the can yet. He'd wait and keep trying until he was sure he could do it again. He settled back down into position.

**One**

 


End file.
